


Gesellschaft

by SonriaCat



Series: Tales from Winter Camp [19]
Category: Earth 2 (TV 1994)
Genre: 100 situations, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-03-08 13:20:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13459101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonriaCat/pseuds/SonriaCat
Summary: Maybe this was why Eden Advance was succeeding when earlier settlement attempts hadn't.





	Gesellschaft

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Fun

“Okay, Julia,” said Yale. “You’ve spelled Devon’s word correctly. Now you just have to spell one of your own.” He consulted the dictionary in front of him. “Here it is. Gesellschaft.”

“Gesellschaft,” she repeated. “That’s the idea of a society instead of a community, right?”

“You have to formally ask for a definition,” he reminded her.

Her lips quirked. “May I have it, then?”

“Gesellschaft,” said Yale. “Two definitions. One, an association of individuals for common goals, as for entertainment, intellectual or cultural purposes or for business reasons. Two, a society or group characterized chiefly by formal organization, impersonal relations, the absence of generally held or binding norms, and a detachment from traditional and sentimental concerns, and often tending to be rationalistic and secular in outlook.”

“Definitely not Eden Advance,” whispered Magus to Walman, who laughed until True hissed at them to shut up. Julia had started spelling the word.

“-S-E-L-L,” she was saying. She paused, thinking for a moment, and then finished. “S-C-H-A-F-T.”

Yale closed down the dictionary. “Correct. Congratulations, Julia. You’ve won the spelling bee.”

The room erupted in applause, and Alonzo jumped up to give the doctor a hug. “I knew those skewed genes had to be good for something else besides medicine. Who’d have guessed it was for spelling twenty-credit words?”

She ducked her head, blushing. “I guess. This was actually fun.”

“Sure it was,” said True from beside her. Her tone was sour. “ _You_ won.”

“Aw, c’mon,” said Walman as he clapped her shoulder. “You were the one who hushed us a minute ago, while she was spelling. Don’t be a spoilsport. We all had fun with it.”

“Yeah,” chimed in Magus. “And it’s not the kind of stuff we used to for fun on the Stations, either. Who’d have thought we would ever enjoy a spelling bee?”

“Who’d have thought we would ever have read _Peter Pan_ out loud?” asked Walman.

True seemed to have become honestly confused. “But all those things are fun. Aren’t they?”

Walman and Magus exchanged an uncomfortable glance. Finally, he tried an answer. “Yeah, but when you get older you tend to do different things for fun.”

“Such as?” she asked.

There was another uncomfortable look, and Julia found herself hiding a chuckle behind her wrist. True wasn’t exactly innocent, but clearly she wasn’t as grown-up as she thought either. Here, though, the sheer lack of opportunity meant that there wasn’t a good place for strictly adult entertainment. As a result, the group had shifted its norms.

Just like a community might. Magus was right. Eden Advance had become anything _except_ Gesellschaft, despite them all coming from something like that on the Stations. Of course, “Gemeinschaft” was equally difficult to spell, even if both concepts were strictly theoretical anyway.

Or were they? Could their creation of a community be the reason Eden Advance had succeeded when other settlement attempts — the scientists, the penal colonies — had failed?

Alonzo waved a hand in front of her face. “Hey. Come back from wherever you went. We have a spelling bee win to celebrate, don’t we? Plus plans for a rematch. True isn’t going to accept this as a final result, you know. So I bet there’ll be another contest before too long.”

She pursed her lips. “That might not be as fun as this one was. The novelty will have worn off.”

He shrugged. “Only one way to find out, isn’t there? Hey, True!” he called. “If you can quit pouting for half a second, I have an idea. Want to hear it?”

Julia let herself go ahead and laugh. Regardless of whatever they were, it was a group, and she was happy to be a part of it, even when they weren’t having fun. When they did, it was even better.


End file.
